It has been confirmed that Lone Star, a US private equity fund, is planning to demand compensation of billions of euro in an investor-state claim against the Korean government.

According to the main points of Lone Star's notification of dispute, which the Financial Services Commission handed to the Democratic United Party lawmaker Jeong Ho-jun on July 2, Lone Star claims they suffered losses of billions of euro due to the commission's delay in approving the sale of the Korea Exchange Bank and the National Tax Service's arbitrary tax investigation and taxation. At present 1 billion euro is valued at 1.4 trillion won.

This is the first time that an approximate number of the compensation that Lone Star is asking for has been confirmed. The commission categorized Lone Star's notification of dispute as classified, keeping it from being made public. On July 24, Lawyers for a Democratic Society submitted a request for the disclosure of information on the notification of dispute that Lone Star sent the Korean government in May.

Members of the Korea Exchange Bank labor union demonstrate in front of the Financial Services Commission in Yeouido, Seoul on November 18, 2011, asking the commission to issue a punitive selloff order to Lone Star. Kim Chang-gil

Lone Star also claims there were procedural problems in gathering information without consent during a tax investigation of Lone Star related companies in 2005, as well as in the taxation by the National Tax Service.

Lawmaker Jeong Ho-jun stated, "The fundamental reason that the Korean government is being sued for trillions of won is because the commission intentionally delayed their ruling of Lone Star's eligibility as a major shareholder despite circumstantial evidence that showed Lone Star was an industrial capital. In order to win against Lone Star's claims, the government should first acknowledge the fact that they did not properly apply the law at the time, rather than just express their confidence."